RFID Tag Basics
RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags are smart labels outfitted with an antenna and microchip. When slapped onto a product or pallet, they transmit data that allows you to immediately get the information you need without having to scan each item individually.
There are a few key considerations when selecting the appropriate tag for your application. These include:
What is an RFID Tag?
Whether it’s the label on a store bottle of vodka to discourage theft or the tag on equipment used by hospitals, RFID tags help people track merchandise and assets. RFID Tag These labels, which can be passive (no battery) or active (with a battery), work by absorbing radio waves from an RFID reader and then reflecting those signals back with a unique ID number.
That unique ID is transmitted to a network that processes the information and can send it on for further analysis, or it could be used to trigger an action, like a conveyor belt to stop when a product hits a sensor or a light goes off at a store. The information stored on an RFID tag can also be updated remotely.
Surface Considerations – The type of surface where an RFID tag will be mounted can affect performance and read ranges. This can lead to selecting the right material and adhesive for an application. Hardware Compatibility – The RFID printer and RFID reader you use play a critical role in choosing an RFID tag that will be compatible with your system.
Passive vs. Active
Whether an RFID tag is passive (no battery) or active (with a battery), the device has the ability to communicate with an RFID reader via radio frequency. Passive tags harvest energy from electromagnetic waves emitted by an RFID reader and backscatter that energy to transmit a coded message.
A conductive antenna on the RFID tag receives this signal and powers the integrated chip, which then sends the message to an RFID reader. Depending on the application, the tag’s memory can hold anywhere from a product serial number to a vast amount of information that could be used for inventory or data collection.
RFID tags are also used in animal identification, such as with cattle ear tags and implanted transponders, called microchips. In addition, employees wear RFID tags on ID badges to track their movements and access to secure areas. The technology is also used in payment processing through “pay wave.” For example, a customer simply places their credit card near the terminal and a reader reads the chip to transfer funds from the bank to the merchant.
Antenna vs. Integrated Circuit (IC)
Antennas are a necessary element for RFID systems because they convert the reader’s signal into RF waves that can be picked up by the tags. They are also crucial for determining how long a read zone will be and can affect the range of the system.
The IC (Integrated Circuit) is the brain of an RFID tag and is used for communicating with the interrogator. It consists of four memory banks – EPC, TID, User, and Reserved. The EPC and TID banks can be programmed with a unique ID for each item, and the User bank contains information about that article.
The IC can be molded into the substrate along with the antenna. Substrates must be able to provide dissipation of electrostatic accumulation, smooth printed surfaces for antenna layout and bonding, durability and stability under various operating conditions, mechanical protection of the antennas and chips and their interconnections. Additionally, they must offer good mechanical strength and corrosion resistance for a wide variety of applications and environments. For example, specialized ground/mat antennas must be able to survive and work well when they are walked on or driven over by people and equipment.
Size vs. Shape
An RFID tag can come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The shape refers to the external appearance of the item, like its figure or what form it has – is it a triangle (3 sides), a square (4 equal sides) or a rectangle (5 equal sides). Size is its dimensions, and can be measured by its length and breadth.
The results consistently show that whatever proximity measure is used on a dataset,’size’ and’shape’ differences are confounded to varying degrees in the determination of ordinations, clusters, group comparisons and relations to environmental variables. This has implications for future work in community ecology, particularly where proximity measures are used on relative abundance data.
A solution is to separate’size’ and’shape’ using compositional methods. This allows the application of proximity measures to raw or log-transformed total abundances and also enables tests of temperature relationships on relative data. To this end, I have simulated 1000 datasets of species abundance counts with the same vector s of total abundances to define’size’ and a different matrix P of randomized relative abundances (i.e. row profiles or compositions) to define’shape’, and compared the performance of several proximity measures using the component breakdowns shown in Fig. 3.
Material
In order for RFID tags to communicate with the reader, they must have a substrate that holds all of its components together. Substrates can be made from a variety of materials, such mifare desfire ev1 as paper, polyethylene, or polycarbonate. They also must be able to transmit the signal at the frequency needed by the tag.
The IC in an RFID tag has the job of modulating and demodulating signals, as well as encoding/decoding digital bits. It can also store data, which is often in the form of electrically erasable, programmable read-only memory (EEPROM).
A tag’s antenna is responsible for receiving and transmitting the signal from an interrogator. It typically takes up the largest amount of space on a tag. The IC and antenna are then mounted on the substrate, which holds all of the tag’s other components together. Hardware compatibility is also an important factor to consider when choosing a material for your RFID tag. For example, you may need to consider if the tag will be used in conjunction with an RFID printer and what type of reader it will be communicating with.
